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Forage availability and maternal characteristics affect costs of reproduction in a large marsupial

  • Behavioral ecology –original research
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A Correction to this article was published on 14 May 2020

This article has been updated

Abstract

Life history theory predicts trade-offs in allocation between survival, maintenance, growth, and reproduction, especially when resources are scarce. Individual variation in resource acquisition can affect trade-offs, but is often unaccounted for. We quantified the fitness costs of reproduction, accounting for environmental conditions, maternal characteristics and individual variation. We analyzed 10 years of data from marked kangaroos to evaluate how reproductive allocation affected annual mass change and skeletal growth, subsequent fecundity and weaning success, and survival, accounting for maternal mass or size and forage availability. Through repeated measurements of 76–91 females, we investigated how trade-offs varied within and between individuals, assessing whether individual variation could mask population-level trade-offs. In poor environments, females that weaned an offspring lost mass. Females that nursed an offspring for > 7 months had reduced skeletal growth. Females that did not gain mass over the previous 12 months rarely reproduced, especially if they had nursed an offspring for > 7 months the previous year. Reproductive allocation had no effect on weaning success, which was very low, and did not affect maternal survival, suggesting a conservative strategy. Disentangling within- and between-individual responses revealed trade-offs within individuals, but because individuals did not vary in their responses to earlier effort, these trade-offs did not drive population trends. The interacting effects of environmental conditions, maternal characteristics and individual variation on allocation trade-offs demonstrate the importance of long-term monitoring for understanding life history variations in changing environments.

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Data availability statement

The doi for our data is https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/X73H

Change history

  • 14 May 2020

    Unfortunately, the online publication contained an error in the “Data availability statement” and it is corrected by this erratum.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Graeme Coulson, Naomi Davis, Wendy King and all students and field assistants who helped with fieldwork. W. King and G. Coulson aged dead kangaroos using the molar index. We are grateful to Parks Victoria, Wilsons Promontory National Park staff and the University of Melbourne for logistic support. Funding was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Grant to Marco Festa-Bianchet) and by Bishop’s University (Senate Research Committee grant to W. King). We thank Audrey Bourret, François Rousseu and Limoilou-Amélie Renaud for statistical advice. We are also grateful to L.-A. Renaud, W. King and two anonymous reviewers for comments on previous manuscript versions. Animal handling was approved by the Animal Care Committee of the Université de Sherbrooke (protocol MFB-2016-01) and by the Animal Ethics Committee of the University of Melbourne (approval 1312902.1). Field research was conducted under the authority of permits 1007062 and 10008630 of the Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada

    Pauline Toni & Marco Festa-Bianchet

  2. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Orange, NSW, Australia

    David M. Forsyth

Authors
  1. Pauline Toni
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  2. David M. Forsyth
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  3. Marco Festa-Bianchet
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Contributions

PT conceived the idea; PT, DMF and MFB collected the data; PT analysed the data and wrote the first draft; all authors contributed substantially to revisions.

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Correspondence to Pauline Toni.

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Communicated by Mathew Samuel Crowther.

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Toni, P., Forsyth, D.M. & Festa-Bianchet, M. Forage availability and maternal characteristics affect costs of reproduction in a large marsupial. Oecologia 193, 97–107 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04653-5

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